Pheidole rhinoceros Forel 1899

This species occurs in lowland wet forest habitats. Its upper elevational limit varies geographically: on the Barva Transect in Costa Rica it does not occur over 500m elevation. It occurs as high as 800m elevation in the Peñas Blancas Valley in the Cordillera de Tilarán, and it has been collected at 1100m on Volcan Cacao, an isolated peak in the Cordillera de Guanacaste. Nests are in dead wood on the forest floor, under loose bark, and occasionally in live stems (nests have been collected in live stems of Myriocarpa [Urticaceae] and the petiolar domatia of Piper cenocladum [Piperaceae]). Surprisingly, given the moderately common discovery of nests when general collecting, workers rarely recruit to baits and are rarely collected in Winkler or Berlese samples.

Southern Mexico to Panama.

Pheidole rhinoceros Forel, 1899e PDF: 73, pl. 3, fig. 23 (s.w.) PANAMA. Neotropic. AntCat AntWiki HOL

Taxonomic history

See also: Wilson, 2003a: 738.